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Save Atari ?

Atari

Atari is a company that pisses me off sometimes. It’s pathetic that they can’t get themselves straightened up and solve their financial issues.

When I began writing this post, I originally wrote it as if Atari should be saved. Go buy their games, buy their stock – we need Atari. But honestly, do we Atari? What has Atari recently contributed to the video game industry other than its brand name?

Sure Atari was THE game development studio back in the 70s/80s but they’ve lost their monopoly on the industry years ago for the same reason that they’re losing it today: they simply don’t understand what gamers want anymore.

Looking at Atari’s future lineup, there’s only one game that I want and the release date is still listed as To Be Determined! If you can’t guess the game I’m talking about it’s Alone in the Dark 4. It is possible that this single title could save Atari from its doomsday, but the likelihood of that is slim. If Alone in the Dark 4 isn’t scary enough and isn’t entertaining enough (aka PERFECT AAA TITLE) Atari will die. What is even more said is that Atari’s actually more likely to go bankrupt before the game is ever released.

Atari is a company that grew into a brand which will always live on in the game world. It’s an example of why you should never put all your eggs in one basket – I’m looking at you Dragon Ball Z. It’s probably better to let Atari become a figment of gamer’s imaginations than a on-going embarrassment to the video game industry.

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Portal’s Appeal, and Why we need more games like Portal

There is something plain weird with Portal. I finished playing this game not very long ago, and it has me absorbed. Not just when playing it, but even when I’m not. I reach for my Portal Gun every so often, or hurriedly look for my Weighted Companion Cube or, well, back away and run out of the room when I see a cake, yelling “The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!”

While navigating through portals is somewhat disorienting at the beginning of the game, you get used to it fairly fast. The same applies to the “flinging” concept – it can be frustrating in the beginning, but you get addicted to it later. Another addiction I found was to shoot one portal in the ceiling, one on the floor and jump into the infinite vortex thus created.

Portal appears so weird because it is the first game in a long time that doesn’t want to be “realistic”, it realizes that in a video game, you don’t have real life’s restrictions. You can do whatever the hell you like. And it is games like Portal that we need in the industry – games that are different, creative and stimulating.

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How hypocritical Nintendo ruined Maniac Mansion

Ah, classic LucasArts adventure games. They’re a memory I cherish, and they’re something you ought to play if you were under the belief that games cannot be funny or have decent storylines. While the adventure gaming scene was dominated by giants like the Monkey Island games, the Indiana Jones games and the later released masterpiece, Grim Fandango, one of the forefathers of the LucasArts adventure games brand was Maniac Mansion.

The satirical game was one example of how games back then were art, not some stupid high-graphics shooting trash. Apparently, Nintendo didn’t like free, liberal art a lot, and opted for more nerfed games. This article from Douglas Crawford exposes Nintendo’s hypocrisy quite well. Nintendo wanted LA’s masterpiece on their NES, but they didn’t want any of the bad words and suggestive things. Of course, they’d rather that you kill creatures and people, but it’s bad to say the word kill or suck.

Some of the edits Nintendo required included the ones like the line
“getting your brains sucked out” being cut, or “For a good time EDNA 3444” replaced by “Call Edna 3444”. Their anti-nudity clause involved cutting out a humorous poster of a mummy, wrapped head-to-toe in bandages striking a Playboy pose.

The most ridiculous one is the removal of the term “NES SCUMM system”, which the engine on which the game ran. Nintendo’s reaction? “Yeah, but it says NES SCUMM. What will people think?” Grow up, Nintendo.

One of the most interesting points in the rather well-written article is this:

The standards go on to prohibit

depictions of excessive and gratuitous violence,

which would seem to ban any game in which your character met people, killed them, took their money, and then bought more weapons. But in fact most Nintendo games are still faithful to that theme, so we were unclear as to how to interpret Nintendo’s policy. In the Super Mario Bros games, which are considered clean and wholesome, kids routinely kill creatures, and the only motivation is that they are there.

At least most other games give you a reason to kill enemies. Nintendo screwed up Maniac Mansion on several reasons, and will probably not admit it, since screwed up is a sexually suggestive term and against Nintendo policy. If you, for any reason at all, played the NES port of Maniac Mansion, you’ve played a stunted, nerfed version of it and I ask of you to play the PC version ASAP.

Sony is Back

Very rarely will I give Sony or in general the Playstation brand props for doing anything right. I hate them. I acknowledge their importance to the gaming industry and what they have brought it, but for many reasons for which I will not get into I cannot stand anything Sony.

BUT I saw Sony’s new Playstation 3 commercial during The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode tonight and my jaw literally dropped. If reality was a cartoon, it would have hit the floor or if I was laying on the floor maybe in reality my jaw could have hit the floor…

Anyway, this video makes me want to own a PS3 for the hardcore games, amazing visuals, and basically the overall package that the Playstation 3 is offering. Not that I recommend buying a product based around a commercial. If I was a niave consumer then yes I would go out and buy one now.

Try not to fall into the trap after watching this commercial.

X-Files 2: The Movie

With word out now that The X-Files 2 movie is coming to theaters in 2008, I pose the question is this a good thing?

Watch the video below and judge for yourself.

The X-Files, though a classic TV show, is something that to many is seen as cheesy and stupid. The series never truly answered half the questions it brought up. Do you honestly think the second movie will answer more questions than it asks? I say no. Either way if it can be as cheesy and fun as the clips above, I’m totally down to seeing the new movie.The clips above came from the video game released in the 90s. Yes it was awesome.

Old Skool Games Rule!

There’s something about dusting off your old console or PCs and trying to get these 10 year old games playing correctly. It’s almost like playing through your memories. Whether they’re cheesy or down right terrible, you remember these games as being groundbreaking. They left an impact on you as a child and have forever shaped who you are. This is why we like old skool video games.

Soon enough we’ll see companies popping up, restoring old classics just like they do with films nowadays. God I love these games!

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